The All-Star break complete, the Boston Red Sox, including these three 1st-half stars, can now put their entire focus on the season’s second-half.
Blown leads, disappearing offense, and a lack of consistency have plagued the Boston Red Sox at various points so far in 2019. Looking for a cohesion — and perhaps a pitcher or two — will be the main goal in the season’s back nine.
Holes in the bullpen and rotation aside, the Red Sox are in good position to make a run to at the very least a wild card spot. Boston sits 2.5 games behind the leaders, the Tampa Bay Rays, and is two back of the Cleveland Indians for the second spot. The Oakland A’s and Texas Rangers are also in the mix, with A’s ahead of the Red Sox and the Rangers a mere game behind them.
Despite this sense of dread hanging in the air, Boston has played much better baseball since the start of May. They entered that month with a record of 13-17 and are a solid 36-24 since.
Boston still carries one of the best offenses in baseball. Certain elements have fallen off since 2018 but the Red Sox are still tied with at the tops of baseball with 509 runs scored.
J.D. Martinez (18 HR, 48 RBI, .304 BA) and Xander Bogaerts are having their usual stellar seasons at the plate. Bogaerts, who is hitting .294, leads the team in RBI (65) and doubles (29).
Mookie Betts and Andrew Benintendi have had their struggles, but here’s hoping a solid series to end the first-half of the season gave them a jolt. Betts was 7-13 with 3 RBI in three games against the Detroit Tigers and Benintendi was 5-10 in the last two.
Even with their struggles, others stepped up. Here are three players who were stars in the first half of 2019.
Rafael Devers
In his third season, Rafael Devers was bound to make a leap. He’s not only done that, but gone above and beyond in his progress.
Devers played in 87 games. He’s currently second on the team with 62 RBI and leading the team in hits (112), batting average (.324), and OPS (.923). He’s also swatted 16 home runs, with four already in the month of July.
As the summer has heated up so has Devers. He has collected 19 hits in his last ten games. Since the start of June, Devers has driven in 30 runs.
Hits have been a theme for Devers all season long and now that others are getting on base ahead of him, he’s only been getting better. Devers has also been hitting in the two-hole lately, delivering a .426 batting average (in 54 at-bats) with 4 home runs and 14 RBI.
In 2019, Devers has 34 multi-hit games, 12 times collecting three or more hits. He’s already in the throes of a career-year and much of the same will be needed in the second half.
Christian Vazquez
The position of catcher was an interesting one to start the season. Sandy Leon was down in the minor leagues, while Christian Vazquez and Blake Swihart were set to split time at catcher.
That changed fairly quickly.
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Swihart and Vazquez struggled early. The choice was ultimately made to trade Swihart and bring Leon back to Boston, with Vazquez taking full advantage of getting more playing time.
Leon still gets his starts, but Vazquez has taken on the bulk of the load, cementing his spot as the top catcher. He’s played in 74 games, including some at Designated Hitter and has already reached career-highs in both home runs (14) and RBI (41). He’s hitting .299 in 2019, including a .373 mark in May.
The average dipped in June but through six games in July, Vazquez has already collected 10 hits.
He’s been doing some damage against the AL East as well, at least in games against the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays. Vazquez is 22-71 in these games, but only 10-44 against the New York Yankees and the Rays.
Vazquez continues to be solid behind the plate, throwing out 37 percent of base runners and committing only one error so far in 2019.
Michael Chavis
Initially brought up to the Boston Red Sox due to the injuries of Dustin Pedroia, Brock Holt, and Eduardo Nunez, Michael Chavis has been a mainstay in the lineup.
And while he’s dabbled at second base, Chavis has spent the majority of his time at first base because of injuries to Mitch Moreland and Steve Pearce.
Chavis came out of the gates quickly, hitting six home runs in his first 17 games. In 69 games with the Red Sox, Chavis has 15 home runs, 48 RBI and is hitting .263.
One of the many highlights Chavis has produced in his young big league career was his performance against the Chicago White Sox on May 4. He collected four hits in this outing, setting the stage for his pretty stellar rookie season thus far.
Chavis has come across a few struggles, as many rookies do when facing pitchers for a second and third time. He’s only clubbed five home runs since May 22, but did have 2 home runs and 6 RBI when the Red Sox lost 17-13 to the Yankees in London.
He’s looked comfortable at the plate and in the field and should be in contention for rookie of the year if he keeps it up.
And if all goes well, also in the thick of the playoff race come September.